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Melissa’s Story

In 2010, Melissa developed an acute pain in her side. What we thought was a strained muscle turned out to be a large tumor in her abdomen. Scans showed spots in her chest and lungs. She was diagnosed with Stage IV Wilm's Tumor. She had surgery to remove the tumor and 26 weeks of Chemo-Therapy. She was due to start radiation when another tumor was detected. More surgery, aggresive Chemo-Therapy & radiation followed in 2011.

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Latest Journal Update

Life Goes On

Tomorrow will mark the first year since Melissa's passing. We are returning to California for a few days to see friends. It is ironic that we return there on the anniversary.

For those of you that still receive email notifications from this site, I wanted to take a minute to reach out to all that have followed our journey.

Much has changed in the past year. Marianne and I relocated to Florida last December to be closer to family. It was extremely hard to stay in California in the house where Melissa grew up. It was bitter sweet leaving our friends, but the decision has been a good one.

I will go into much more detail about all that has transpired in the past year in a later post, but I wanted to pen a short entry that some of you may see so we don't lose touch. I plan on setting up a website that celebrates Melissa's life so the impact on those she touched both in life and death may live on. I envision a place that allows both ourselves and those who visit the site to be able to share her story, photo's, videos, music and the philanthropic causes that we support in her name.